1. Field of the Invention
A mixing hoe, for mortar and other construction material in a container such as a wheel barrow or open mixing container, is provided with rounded comers and angled or contoured sides and is provided with openings in it to efficiently mix construction material without damaging the container or leaving volumes of construction material unmixed.
2. Description of Related Art
It is generally common practice in the construction industry and for do-it-yourself handymen to mix mortar in a wheel barrow or open container. While some users have found the standard garden hoe to be a convenient and adequate tool for mixing, these hoes suffer from many drawbacks and limitations. As the basic structure of the mixing hoe has gone through little change over the past 100 years, due consideration must be given to the progressive design of the wheel barrow and its material construction.
It is common to form a pile or heap of powder material such as a concrete, sand, etc., mix from a packet or bag in a container, pour in a liquid, usually water, and mix in the water with the powder. This process is repeated until the proper liquid mix proportion is reached. Less liquid or too little will not form a uniform pasty mix and too much will weaken and make the mix too fluid. The usual problem encountered is in getting the last powder remnants from the corners, sides, end and bottom of the receptacle where it tends to adhere and coagulate without properly mixing with the liquid. Without proper mixing of all the material there will be some areas where there is too much liquid and others where there is too little. Both result in a weakened structure.
Prior art mortar mixing hoes, such as those described by W. Wickson, in U.S. Pat. No. 565,379, issued Aug. 4, 1896 and N. Anderson, U.S. Pat. No. 858,150, issued Sep. 3, 1907 have sharp pointed corners and distinctly angled edges. For the early wooden and metal wheel barrows with generally perpendicular side walls, these hoes were used quite effectively for mixing construction materials. However, primarily through the use of synthetic materials such as plastic, fiberglass, and acrylics, the overall design of the wheel barrow has changed to include integrally-molded, contoured side walls with relatively soft surfaces. The use of conventional prior art mortar mixing hoes in these modern wheel barrows, has proven to be awkward and even destructive. The conventional mixing hoe is generally difficult to manipulate to effectively scrape away mortar adhering to the corners and contoured walls of the wheel barrow or open container during mixing. Moreover, sharp corners of mixing blades tend to gouge, rip, cut, and sometimes puncture the relatively soft surfaces of the wheel barrow and open mixing containers now in use.
A mixing hoe is designed to be used with weaker, softer modern material containers, such as open top mixing containers and wheel barrows, having rounded comers and sloping side walls. The hoe has a top recessed opening for attachment or placement of a handle to the front or back side of the blade centrally of the hoe blade so as to center or balance the center of gravity and forces exerted during use and to provide equal access to both top edges of the blade, for independent use, as well as the bottom and side edges. The handle intersects the blade at an angle of 70 to 85 degrees with the top side of the blade for flat side horizontal movement through construction material. The edges are blunt and outer comers are all rounded to prevent the mixing hoe from gouging, ripping, cutting and punching the inside surfaces of the container or wheel barrow during mixing.
Different angles between the blade bottom edge and side edges and between the top and sides and between the top edges and recess allows the mixing hoe to engage the bottom and sides of the different containers to scrape off material adhering to these surfaces and comers by a simple rotation of the mixing hoe handle, regardless of the configuration and angles of the container walls. The blade edges are angled so that the flat bottom edge extended intersects the flat side edges extended at an angle in excess of 90 degrees and the side edges extended intersect the top edges extended at an angle of essentially 90 degrees. The opposing top and bottom edges and opposing side edges give ready access to the left and right sides of container walls with little movement by the user necessary. One or more flow ports are provided within the blade to allow limited flow passage therethrough, and flow deflectors are provided adjacent the flow ports to direct and agitate material passing through the flow ports. The top edge of the blade is curved in the direction of the handle to direct material, and in particular liquid, flow during mixing.